New Remington's owner to seek incentives for blight

With a leaky roof, bowed floors and a century of history, the new owner of the Remington’s property downtown is building a case to seek incentives for blight.

Though not settled on a use for the property, owner Thane Kifer said securing incentives would be key to making the 201 S. Campbell Ave. redevelopment financially feasible.

“It’s a wreck,” said Kifer, the president, CEO and chairman of Farmers State Bank in Bolivar. “The building’s pretty much in shambles.

“I’m trying to take a sow’s ear and hopefully can turn it into a silk purse, and that takes time.”

The property, which inside has reminders of the former Remington’s music venue - overturned chairs, trash and the like - has a 2014 taxable appraised value of $396,100, according to the Greene County assessor.

Kifer, who closed on the building purchase Dec. 31 for an undisclosed amount from Janas Enterprises LLC, said he was attracted to the project because of its long history, but also because downtown is in a state of flux.

“About three years ago, I became interested in downtown Springfield. It seems to be on the move, a lot of things happening there,” Kifer said. “It seems like there are a lot of lofts, a lot of housing, that’s coming online, and I understand that the occupancy ratios are good.”

Kifer, who’s working with a structural engineer and architect, still is weighing his options for the roughly 18,000-square-foot building.

“What I would like to do would be to put a second story on it and try and give it some presence in the community,” Kifer said, noting lofts could be an option.

Built by German-American immigrant Dr. Ludwig Ullmann in the 1870s, the once three-floor building originally had a hotel on its upper two stories, where it also housed residents such as Missouri Supreme Court Judge Thomas Sherwood and James Smith, president of the Springfield White Lime Co., Kifer said. Through its early years, the first floor was occupied by the likes of Ike's Place bar and Kentucky Liquor House, which sold imported and domestic brandy, wine and gin for medicinal purposes.

Around 1948, the Rubenstein family demolished the top two floors and used the first floor as a clothing store, where Kifer can remember his mother taking him to shop. The site, directly across College Street from a movie theater, Regal College Station Stadium 14, was most recently home to Remington’s.